Virtual Reality
by princesspriscillamaxwell
Summary: Heero works in a company called Virtual Reality Inc. a company that works with virtual technology. Their latest mission is Operation Dreamer where the objective is to create the user's perfect partner but something goes drastically wrong during testing.
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: Please do not sue. I have no money. I spent it fixing my computer so I could write this fic. I do not own any of the gundam pilots.  
  
Please do not steal any of my ideas. I worked long and hard on it. Please read and review. It's the only way I can make this fic/series better. Want to post it somewhere? Be my guest. But please tell me where by emailing me.  
  
// words in between are part of Heero's dream//  
  
Chapter One  
  
//It was the same girl. She had long chestnut brown hair that flowed freely around him. Her eyes were that of an unusual violet, her face in the shape of a heart. In the center was a perfectly formed nose and not far below was a pair of full and pouty, red lips.  
  
Beautiful.  
  
Heero noticed that the girl was slowly walking towards him. The girl's lips were moving but Heero could not hear a sound. As the girl came closer Heero subconsciously used his lip reading skills he had learnt as a child to interpret what he was saying.  
  
//"My name is Duo. What's yours?"//  
  
****  
  
Wufei entered the large building of Virtual Reality Inc holding a large stack of papers in his right hand. He headed for the third floor, room 5B where he knew the programmer Heero Yuy would be. Upon reaching his destination he knocked before opening the door. There he found Heero typing rapidly into his computer, no doubt creating a new function for the company's new product.  
  
"Great work Yuy." Wufei said and waved the papers in his hand. "I am very impressed with your work and have decided to put your proposed ideas into phase three of Operation Dreamer." The Chinese boy extended a hand to which Heero took hold of and shook firmly.  
  
"There is no need to thank me sir. Creating ideas is only part of the job. "  
  
"Now, Yuy there is no need to be so humble." Said Wufei. "I didn't just come here just to congratulate you on your good work."  
  
Heero's eyes widened at the rare compliment that he was given by his boss and Wufei was sure that he now had the boy's full attention.  
  
"I want you to be the first to test the product." Continued Wufei. "I want you to get a feel of it and then to help create the scenarios that you think would suit this product."  
  
"Sir, are you sure you want me to be the first to test it? I mean sector two usually does all the testing doesn't it?" Heero paused to think back to the ideas he had proposed for Operation Dreamer. "No, I'm sorry sir but I don't think I can take up your offer."  
  
Wufei's lip curled. "And why do you think that?"  
  
"I don't believe that I have the right qualifications to complete such a task."  
  
"Of course you do!" Wufei tapped the papers in his hand. "What do you think all this is? Rubbish? Recycled tree? No! This is all your hard work that has been examined by all the scientists in sector one and this is the first time that they have unanimously agreed on anything."  
  
"But-"  
  
"Listen to me Heero. Starting from tomorrow you will be working next to me in sector five. I want you to move all your belongings out of here and into the office next to mine by the end of today. If you fail to comply to my instructions then consider yourself unemployed." That said Wufei walked out the door leaving Heero utterly speechless.  
  
The next day Heero walked into his new office next to his Boss's on level seven. There on his brand new desk he found a note.  
  
Board meeting at 9:15. Bring your notes and any more ideas you may have. Testing begins at 10.  
  
Heero checked the clock and found that it was almost time for the board meet. He headed towards the meeting room and found that most of the people were already there.  
  
"Heero." It was his boss Wufei. "Glad to see that you've decided to join us on this exciting day." He patted the chair next to him. "Come sit."  
  
Heero obediently did as requested and sat down.  
  
"Heero I want you to meet Dorothy, our mind control specialist. She's in charge of overseeing all the functions in our new product and let me tell you that she is extremely pleased with what she has seen."  
  
Dorothy smiled. "Pleased to meet you." She said and looked the young programmer directly in the eye. "Heero, I find your work to stand out. Of course this may probably be because it's so neat and efficient but I've also found many of your ideas that you present to be unique. I'll explain more on that when we come to do the testing."  
  
Heero nodded.  
  
"Next we have Quatre, our empath. He monitors the emotions and any strong feelings that one may experience during the testing phase." Explained Wufei. "Quatre has the power to call a complete shutdown if finds fault in a person's emotional response."  
  
Heero suddenly felt a whole lot better now he knew that there would be somebody responsible should an accident occur.  
  
"These two are the most important people throughout the entire operation and now that I have introduced you to them why don't I let you do your own introduction and allow you to present your ideas?"  
  
Heero stood up and shuffled his papers nervously. "As you all should know, my name is Heero Yuy and I was a programmer. The ideas that you have read about were inspired by a recurring dream that I've been having for the past two years. I have this dream at least twice a week and do not know what triggers it. My ideas are not intended to be turned into a game as I believe that dreams are not to be toyed with."  
  
A few heads nodded in agreement to his last statement and Heero continued.  
  
"I believe that dreams are personal things and since the product requires a person to dream I wish to make sure that this product will be made for personal use only."  
  
"But of course!" interrupted Wufei. "Operation dreamer was designed to allow the user to see another side of themselves, their missing half. That is definitely a personal issue and therefore will be made for personal use only. Quatre has even considered adding a password protection function safeguard such personal belongings."  
  
Heero nodded in Quatre's direction, silently acknowledging the boy's sensitivity towards such personal matters.  
  
"Now that I have the security measures confirmed I will tell you about my dream."  
  
Everybody immediately straightened in his or her chair. They all gave their full attention to Heero.  
  
"My recurring dream is about a girl. She comes up to me on most nights, just walking towards me. I can see her lips moving and yet I cannot hear anything she says. When I ask her to say something I cannot hear myself talking either. It is a strange dream that has been happening for the past few years and sometimes I wonder if I will ever meet her in real life."  
  
"That is wonderful to hear!" Dorothy said excitedly. "We could use Operation dreamer to help you meet the girl."  
  
Heero blushed furiously at the comment. "I cannot, its too-"  
  
"Excellent suggestion Dorothy! Absolutely wonderful idea." Wufei said and clapped his hands together. "Right we should get this into the testing phase straight away. You are all dismissed from this meeting. I want to see you all in the testing room by ten!"  
  
Heero sighed and stood up to leave the room when he felt a hand clap his shoulder.  
  
"Quatre?"  
  
"Whats wrong Heero? Don't you want to be part of this exciting new invention?"  
  
"I...I do. Its just that...I can only see her in my dreams. I can sort of remember what he looks like when I am awake but only vaguely if you understand what I mean."  
  
"I understand Heero. I'll talk to Wufei about it." Quatre paused and then chuckled quietly to himself.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Just think about it." Quatre laughed. "If the testing phase works then you would literally be meeting the girl of your dreams. Wouldn't that be fantastic?"  
  
Heero could only nod in agreement. 


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two  
  
At approximately ten Heero found the group standing outside the testing room discussing the day's events.  
  
He had given the offer of testing the Dreamer a good thinking and decided that there was no harm in trying it out. He had spent the last few hours creating and installing a function to recreate human emotions as he wanted to know what the person in his dream was feeling. Heero wanted to know what was making that person cry out for help.  
  
"Hey Heero's here." Dorothy said and waved him over. "Wufei wants you seated in that chair over there."  
  
Heero looked over to where she was pointing when he suddenly felt somebody pushing him in that direction.  
  
"C'mon we don't have all day. Time is money!" said a voice that belonged to his boss. The Japanese soon found himself wearing a helmet with several wires attached. He was also strapped tightly to a chair. Opposite him was also a closed off glass cubicle. The wires from his helmet were attached to the top of this glass cubicle.  
  
"Are you ready Heero?" Wufei asked.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Ok Heero, I want you to relax. I'm going to set off some sleeping gas in the room and you will fall into a deep sleep. Let's see if we can bring that boy out of your dreams and into reality." Said Wufei as he put on a mask. He signalled to a nearby officer to release the sleeping gas into the room and within a few minutes Heero was in dreamland.  
  
//The girl with chestnut brown hair and violet eyes was there again. Her lips were moving and Heero once again used his lip reading skills.  
  
"Please don't hurt me. Please set me free."  
  
"Set you free?" Heero asked mentally.  
  
"Use your imagination." The girl mouthed. "And please don't hurt me. Just set me free and I swear that I won't bother you again."//  
  
Dorothy watched the mind control monitors intensely. The readings on the scale showed that Heero was deep in thought. Meanwhile Quatre was using his special ability to become aware of Heero's feelings. The blonde could sense a longing coming from the Japanese. Quatre raised his head to watch the unconscious boy muttering under his breath when some movement in the glass cubicle caught his eye. Something or someone was materializing.  
  
"Oh my Nataku! I can't believe that this is actually working." Gasped Wufei when he also saw the opaque figure in the cubicle. "That is the person Heero was talking about."  
  
//Heero saw the girl walk towards him, her features became clearer with each step. The girl kept walked slowly and stopped centimetres before him.  
  
"Promise that you won't hurt me if I go?"  
  
"I've never harmed you in anyway...wait! Where are you going?"  
  
"The door is open. Just promise me. No more pain."  
  
"I promise."  
  
Instead of answering the girl walked right through the Japanese boy and Heero's eyes fluttered open.//  
  
Signals beeped and warning alarms went off the instant Heero opened his eyes.  
  
"Argh!" he cried and held his head in his hands. He had the worst headache and tried to take the helmet off the moment he felt it."  
  
"No Heero." Exclaimed Dorothy. "Don't take it off." But it was too late and the removed helmet was on the floor.  
  
Still holding his head Heero looked up to see a slumped figure just opposite him. He couldn't believe his eyes when he realised that it was the girl from his dreams.  
  
"Duo." He whispered.  
  
Quatre suddenly burst into the room holding a glass of water and some pain killers. "Heero! Heero! Are you alright?" I felt pain so I came here with these. "Here take them. They'll make you feel better."  
  
Heero swallowed the pills immediately but didn't take his eyes off the longhaired beauty before him. He couldn't believe that the experiment had actually worked. It had brought a person from a dream into reality. However Duo wasn't moving. She was lying on the floor in the foetal position. Heero turned to Quatre.  
  
"Do you think that you could get Wufei to release Duo out of the cubicle?"  
  
"Duo?" asked a puzzled Quatre. Heero pointed to the cubicle. "Oh right, the girl. Yea ok. Just hang on a moment." Quatre dashed out of the room and soon Heero heard a click indicating that the door had been unlocked.  
  
Slowly Heero made his way towards the glass booth. He hesitated slightly before opening the door.  
  
"Duo? Duo can you hear me?"  
  
There was no response from the girl. Heero crouched down and moved Duo's hair away so he could have a better look at the person from his dreams. He was studying Duo's facial features when her eyelids snapped open and Heero found himself staring into the most beautiful pair of eyes he had ever seen in his life.  
  
"You...you set me free."  
  
Heero recognised that short phrase to be related to the recent dream that he had not long ago. Then Heero froze. That smooth, low baritone voice certainly would not belong to a female. A second glance at the naked being before him confirmed his allowed Heero to realise that Duo was extremely flat chested and that could only mean one thing. Duo was a boy.  
  
"Y...you..." he stammered. "You set me free. Does this mean that you won't hurt me anymore?"  
  
The Japanese boy had a puzzled look on his face. Slowly he pointed at himself.  
  
"My...my name is Heero." The Japanese boy said slowly. "And I've never hurt you in the first place."  
  
"YOU LIE!" the braided boy yelled suddenly causing Heero to jump. "YOU LIE! GET AWAY FROM ME!" Duo quickly curled up into a ball, his head tucked in and arms wrapped around his knees.  
  
By now the group had gathered in the small testing facility and were watching the scene with great interest.  
  
Wufei tapped Heero on the shoulder and indicated for him to leave the room. Heero complied and quietly slipped out of the room while Quatre comforted Duo by pulling him into a hug.  
  
"Its alright. Everything is going to be ok but I need you to trust me. My name is Quatre and I promise that I will do everything I can to help you."  
  
"Is...is he gone?" The braided boy asked tentatively.  
  
"Yes. Heero is outside." Quatre.  
  
"He promised." Whispered Duo. "He promised."  
  
"Promised what?" Quatre was now extremely concerned.  
  
"He promised that he wouldn't cause me any pain but he hurt me by lying."  
  
Quatre hugged the boy again. "Here, let me help you ease the pain." 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three  
  
Wufei played the tape over and over again as he thought about the events that had just occurred. Operation Dreamer was supposed to create the perfect partner for the user but instead had now created a problem. The testing phase had shown that the operation had brought out a being from a dream. Having never been much of a problem he threw his hands up in frustration.  
  
"This completely throws things off track." He grounded out to an empty room.  
  
After the incident Duo had been in a state of shock so Wufei had immediately agreed when Quatre suggested that he take the shaken boy to his house for the night and bring him back to the testing labs for assessment the next day. However this didn't seem to make the problem at hand from go away.  
  
Wufei pressed the off button on the tape player. The problem was proving to be too big. He didn't want to think anymore. He wanted to sleep but he couldn't Wufei took a deep breath and picked up another pile of data. The faster he went through the information, the faster he could get some rest.  
  
Meanwhile Quatre was having trouble trying to get to sleep for different reasons. Duo was currently jumping up and down on Quatre's expensive king sized waterbed and flicking the light switch on and off like a small child. His boundless energy and enthusiasm to touch everything in sight was driving the blonde insane.  
  
"Hey Q dude! Have you tried this?" Duo asked as he jumped. "Cos its heaps fun. Did I ever tell you that you're real cool? Well you're real cool. Well maybe not even real cool. You're super cool!!!"  
  
"No I haven't tried it before because I know that it will puncture the bed." Quatre said through gritted teeth. "Now could you please stop that and get some rest?"  
  
Duo used his puppy dogface in full force. "Oh but I'm having so much fun. Just a little longer? Please Quatre?"  
  
"If I let you jump a little longer the bed will explode and water will-"  
  
RING RING RING RING  
  
This time Duo landed flat on his ass on the floor.  
  
"Oh my gosh! What was that Quatre?" He asked, voice shaking with fear.  
  
"Nothing just the phone." Said Quatre as he picked it up. He was surprised to see Wufei's ashen face on the vid screen.  
  
"Wufei?! What's wrong? Are you alright?"  
  
"I'm fine Winner but I'm afraid that there has been a miscalculation with operation Dreamer. I need you to bring Duo down to the testing labs." The Chinese man said.  
  
"You want me to bring him down now?" Quatre asked incredously. "Wufei are you sure you're alright? Its three in the morning."  
  
"Yes. I'm giving you half an hour to get you and him down here ok?" said the Chinese man before disconnecting.  
  
Quatre turned around to find Duo uncomfortably close to him.  
  
"Hey isn't that was the weird guy I saw today at that weird place."  
  
"Yea and I don't think that he would appreciate it if you called him the weird guy. You see he's my boss. His name is Wufei and he wants me to take you down to the labs just to ask you a few questions I suppose. Do you think you're up to that?"  
  
"Back to the white place?" Duo's shining eyes dimmed with fear. "I don't want to go but I have a feeling that its important...and you'll make me go sooner or later."  
  
'He has a rather good sense of common sense.' Thought Quatre who nodded.  
  
"Ok but you have to promise me that I won't get hurt."  
  
"Duo I promise. Now lets get going."  
  
Duo clung onto Quatre's arm tightly as they entered the main doors of Virtual Reality Inc. His violet orbs were shining with fascination and fear at the different types of machinery he passed on his way to the testing labs. Quatre opened the door to one of the rooms and motioned for Duo to enter first but the braided boy stood stock-still.  
  
"What's wrong Duo?"  
  
"Heero is here."  
  
Quatre looked around and saw no one else. "How do you know that?"  
  
"I can sense it. I just know that he's here and I'm afraid that he'll do something to hurt me like he's done in the past."  
  
"Well how about this. I'll speak to Wufei and make sure that you are under full protection."  
  
Duo nodded eagerly and Quatre pulled out his cell phone and rang Wufei to round up a few security guards to make Duo feel safe. After this was done he looked at Duo.  
  
"It's all done. Security will be on full alert. Now will you go inside?"  
  
Still clutching Quatre's arm, Duo nodded again and entered the testing labs. He waved when he Wufei.  
  
"I remember you! You were the guy who was in the Quatre's little ringing device."  
  
"He means the phone Wufei. What was so important that needed the entire team to be called out in the middle of the night?"  
  
Wufei pointed to the stacks of data piled next to one of the nearby machines. "There has been a miscalculation in Operation Dreamer." He said grimly. "And we have some very important questions to ask Duo before we can begin to correct the error."  
  
"Question me?" Duo asked pointing at himself. "But...but...hey that makes me important doesn't it?"  
  
"Yes Duo, yes it does."  
  
"Wow! I'm actually important." Beamed Duo and Wufei was glad to see him sporting a grin that stretched from ear to ear. "When does the questioning start?"  
  
"It can start now if you are ready."  
  
"Ok."  
  
"Well I'll need to introduce you to a few people. These people will help determine the situation." Wufei said and introduced Dorothy and some of the security officers. Duo smiled and greeted each person with a smile and a good firm handshake and this surprised Quatre. He couldn't figure out how a person who didn't know what a phone be familiar with social customs.  
  
"Duo, I'll be the one to commence the tests for today." Said Dorothy. "So if you'll please follow me this way." She gestured to her office.  
  
"Ok." Duo waved to the rest of the group. "Bye guys. I guess I'll be seeing you a little later." 


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4  
  
"Take a seat and make yourself comfortable."  
  
Dorothy watched as Duo sat down on the leather chair Indian style. She made a mental note of his interesting behaviour.  
  
"Your world is a very interesting place." Duo said after a moment's observation. "Its very...colourful and bright."  
  
"What do you mean colourful and bright?" Dorothy asked. "This laboratory is as boring as a room can get." She said and pointed to the white walls.  
  
"There is more colour here than there is in my world."  
  
Dorothy paused. "Your world?" She sat down in her chair opposite Duo and pulled out a notepad. "Do you think you could tell me more about your world? What is it like?"  
  
Duo cringed visibly. "Its alright. You don't have to answer any questions you're not comfortable with and remember there are security guards stationed outside my office so you are not going to get hurt."  
  
Violet orbs gave the room a quick once over before the braided boy spoke. ""I've spent most of my life in a dark place, a place where everything was black, a place where you can barely see your own hand when held in front of your face." Duo cocked his head to the side as he remembered his world. " Sometimes there is light but that happens very rarely so I guess you could say that my world is black and white."  
  
Duo pointed to the orange highlighter that was on the desk. "My world doesn't have this colour." He reached out and picked up the highlighter.  
  
"This is a beautiful colour. What do you call it?"  
  
"Its orange."  
  
"Oh. Well my world doesn't have anything orange in it. I think it's quite a nice colour. Maybe I can get Quatre to paint his room orange. I'm sure it will brighten the place up a bit. His cream coloured walls are a bit boring as well."  
  
The thought of painting one of Quatre's room's bright orange was too much for Dorothy and she laughed out loud.  
  
Alarmed at sudden hilarity shown, Duo quickly covered his head with his arms. "I didn't mean it like that...please, please don't hurt me. Please don't laugh at me. I didn't mean to say anything bad. Please...please I beg of you."  
  
Dorothy schooled her smile and voice down to a serious nature. "Duo you know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you. Remember you are under full security. You have nothing to fear. I wasn't laughing at you. I was just laughing at the thought of painting Quatre's room bright orange."  
  
"But...what's wrong with a bright orange room?"  
  
Dorothy tapped her head and tried to think of a plausible way of explaining the situation to Duo.  
  
"Well for starters, Quatre is a very sensible person and radical changes in his life such as painting his cream walls bright orange just doesn't suit his personality."  
  
Duo nodded thoughtfully.  
  
"Now, if you are comfortable enough to continue do you think you can tell me more about your world?"  
  
"Um...okay."  
  
"Are you sure?"  
  
Duo nodded his head to affirm his decision.  
  
"Good. Now I'm just going to put these on your head." She said and showed Duo the electrodes that he would soon be wearing. "They will not hurt you so you needn't be afraid. These electrodes will read your brainwaves and show me your thinking patterns. You think you can handle that?"  
  
Duo nodded once again and Dorothy proceeded to attach the electrodes onto his head. Afterwards she connected the electrodes to wires that were hooked up a translator. Then she checked his pulse before going up to the switchboard. She was about to turn the machine on when Duo cried out.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
"Yes Duo?"  
  
"This machine...it will only ready my brain waves read my brainwaves right? It won't do anything else?"  
  
"Well the machine does do more than read them. It also interprets and prints them out onto sheets of paper so we experts can analyse them. The printer might be a little noisy but that isn't anything you should be afraid of, alright?"  
  
"Yea, ok. I suppose you can start now."  
  
Dorothy pushed the switch up and the machine started to hum. The mind control specialist then proceeded to take down notes from the readings that came up on the screen and Duo watched the printer publish page after page of scribbly lines with great interest.  
  
"Duo I'm now going to ask you to close your eyes and turn a light on and off. The light will flicker at different speeds and this will measure how fast your brain reacts to changes in light."  
  
Duo closed his eyes and was immediately surrounded by darkness.  
  
"Ok. I'm going to turn the light on and adjust the flicker speed to fast, medium and slow at random intervals." Said Dorothy as she flipped the switch.  
  
The braided boy's world went instantaneously dark and he remembered his origin. When the light started to flicker, it reminded the braided boy of the rare moments when light had shone in his dark world.  
  
Dorothy watched the readings on the machine carefully. Something was wrong. The brainwaves printed weren't of those for a normal human person. Emotion lines curved all over the place. The patterns were inconsistent with some waves were extremely high while others were low and none of these lasted for more than three turns. The thought patterns were also all over the place and lasted for short periods of time. Was Duo ADD (1)? Was he emotionally unstable? And he was also missing the regular brainwave pulse that was consistent in all people. Dorothy knew that Duo was a creation of Heero's mind but would that make a difference? Was Duo human? There were so many unanswered questions. She needed time to think, some time to analyse the new information, somebody to discuss the current situation.  
  
"You can open your eyes now." She said as she turned off the light. She then motioned for a security guard over. "You're free to go now. I'm going to have a doctor friend of mine escort you back to Quatre's home now as us staff members will be holding a meeting that is going to last the whole night. Is that ok?"  
  
"Yea...ok." Said Duo and allowed himself to be led outside.  
  
Dorothy waited ten minutes to make sure that Duo had left the building. She then walked to the phone and called Wufei.  
  
"Hello Wufei. Look its Dorothy, I just finished doing an EEG (2) with Duo and I've found something abnormal."  
  
"Yes well we knew from the start that there would be something unusual going on."  
  
"Well what I've found may also concern Heero."  
  
Wufei immediately turned serious. "Ok Dorothy I understand. I'll call a meeting right away. Come to my office in half an hour. I'll make sure that Heero is under supervision...Duo is still with you right?"  
  
"Uh, no. I sent him home with a Dr Sally Po."  
  
"Good. He needs somebody with him at all times." The Chinese man said and breathed a sigh of relief. "Now I'm going to have to hang up on you and call the rest of the group. Bring to the meeting all the data you have, graphs, paperwork, everything. Got it?" Wufei asked and disconnected.  
  
The mind control specialist hung up and started picking up the data that the machine had printed out. "On it right away sir." She muttered to herself as she walked out of the room.  
  
(1) Attention Deficit Disorder  
  
(2) EEG An instrument that measures electrical potentials on the scalp and generates a record of the electrical activity of the brain 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
  
Quatre was wearing a worried face at the meeting. He was extremely stressed when he had been told that an emergency meeting was going to be held. His empathetic abilities told him that something had happened and it was something that he definitely wasn't going to like.  
  
He looked around the room. There was Wufei with a pile of notes, Dorothy with an even bigger stack of papers and graphs. He noted that both Heero and Duo were missing.  
  
"Where are they?"  
  
"Heero and Duo? They are both currently under strict supervision." Provided Wufei.  
  
"Why? I don't see either of them to be a threat...or are they?"  
  
"No. They aren't a threat. We just need to monitor their behaviour. I've sent one of the medical experts, also Heero's acquaintance, Zechs to look after Heero and Duo is at your house being looked after by one of the medical doctors on the team so there is nothing to worry about."  
  
"Oh." Said Quatre who was quite surprised that Duo was not still in the building. "And uh how did the testing go?" Asked Quatre.  
  
"I think I can answer that question for you." Piped up Dorothy. She picked out one from the many graphs that were sitting next to her and spread it out on the table.  
  
"Now, see this line here." She said and pointed to the green wavy line. "When a person goes through an EEG this line is the first one we look at. In humans, this line is always a consistent wave that occurs constantly."  
  
Dorothy then pulled out another graph and spread it on the table. She pointed to a green wavy line. "This here is the graph for Duo's thinking patterns. See this line here? It's the corresponding line to the first graph I showed you but have a look at its shape. There are high waves and low dips. Some are widespread and others are very close together."  
  
Wufei scratched his head. "What does all this mean?"  
  
"It means that either Duo has the capability to think at least 6 times faster than the average human or" she paused and swallowed. "He isn't human at all."  
  
It was after a few minutes before Wufei broke the silence.  
  
"I guess that makes sense. The probability of Duo not being human is rather high."  
  
"How so?" asked the mind specialist.  
  
"Well, the aim of Operation Dreamer was to create the user's perfect partner. We never programmed the machine to produce a real live human being and also don't forget, we are a company that deals with virtual reality products." Explained the Chinese man.  
  
Dorothy chewed on her nail. "Che! Virtual Reality my butt."  
  
"Pardon?"  
  
"Duo can't be any more real than you and I. He has a pulse. I checked it before the test began."  
  
Wufei shook his head in confusion. "Impossible! We only make virtual...didn't program the machine to make...he has a pulse...oh kami sama..."  
  
"What?"  
  
Wufei shook his head again, this time in disbelief. "We've found a new way to create life."  
  
"We can't prove that until we have more tests done." Said Quatre.  
  
"Yes." Agreed Dorothy. "We'll need blood samples, nail samples, hair samples, and DNA tests to prove that." She said. "You can't just go round saying that you've created a new person without the proof."  
  
"Yes." Sighed Wufei. "We do need the proof before we can announce that-"  
  
RING RING RING RING  
  
Wufei immediately answered the cell phone that had interrupted his sentence. Quatre watched Wufei's facial expressions closely, trying to pick if the phone call was good news or bad news. However the phone call ended quite abruptly.  
  
"We have to go." Said Wufei in a stern voice. "Zechs says that Heero is acting up."  
  
Quatre's head snapped up in attention. "HEERO? Acting up?"  
  
"Yes. That's what Zechs said and having been a friend of Heero's since high school, I would say that he would know best." Said Wufei as he got up and put on his jacket.  
  
Dorothy also got up from her seat. "So what should we do? Do you want me to come with you to check up on him?"  
  
"No. Right now it would be best if you checked up on Duo. Quatre, you should stay here and start up the Dreamer. We may need it later."  
  
"Sure." Said Quatre and he also stood up. "I suggest that you take both of them back to the labs for overnight observation. It would be safer here because we have security facilities and if anything goes wrong we always have the right technology to keep them both under control."  
  
"Good idea." Acknowledged the Chinese man. "Right. Dorothy we take them back here. I'll see you in an hour or so."  
  
The two of them left the building leaving Quatre in charge of the testing labs. The blonde made his way to the Dreamer and turned it on. The machine came to life with a hum.  
  
Quatre stared at the machine with interest. He wondered how modern technology could produce life without the normal human mating process - that is if Duo was really human. The tests hadn't been done yet but Dorothy's declaration about him having a pulse almost clarified that he was.  
  
Quatre thought about the implications that Heero would have to face if news got out about their discovery. He thought about how Heero would be feeling now. What would he be feeling now that he had met a person or even the person of his dreams? Quatre now wanted to experience this feeling himself. His curious mind brought him an idea. He would test the machine himself. 


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6  
  
Wufei arrived outside Zech's house in record time. Walking up to the door he thought about the possibilities of things that could go wrong and hoped that none were too serious or severe. Zechs hadn't provided much detail about Heero's condition, only that he had been acting up. Wufei shook any pessimistic thoughts out of his head and knocked on the door. Hopefully everything would be ok.  
  
When Wufei saw Zechs answer the door he breathed a sigh of relief. His facial expressions showed no signs of stress or worry and this was a good sign.  
  
"How is he?" asked Wufei. "What has Heero done that had you call me? I hope that it is nothing too serious."  
  
Zechs closed the door after the Chinese man. "Its not what he's done. Its how he has been behaving."  
  
"Behaving? Explain."  
  
"You know that I've known Heero for a long time now. He's a quiet man, rather reserved, polite, courteous, always ever so hardworking and trying to be the best. He rarely smiles but always shows some form of happiness when I ask him about his latest achievements. Well I asked him about the last few days and what he had been up and he's not responding."  
  
"Not responding? What do you mean?"  
  
Zechs looked at the ground and sighed. "I don't know how to say it. Maybe you should have a look at him yourself." He led the way to the living room where Heero was sitting, watching television and sipping a cup of tea.  
  
"Heero?" asked Wufei with caution. "How are you feeling?"  
  
Without turning around Heero answered in a soft monotonous voice. "Fine."  
  
The response was curt, too short for Wufei's liking as Heero usually elaborated when he spoke. The Chinese man knew that that one of Heero's strengths was detail and that something must be wrong if the man wasn't adding description in his speech.  
  
"Heero, you're not usually this quiet. Are you sure that everything is ok?" Wufei asked as he approached the Japanese.  
  
"I'm all right." He said in the same tone of voice as before but Wufei couldn't agree with his statement as his employee's eyes were staring straight ahead and looking very very blank.  
  
Dorothy on the other hand was having a hard time trying to keep Duo in line as she drove him back to the lab. Apparently the boy loved everything moving and cars were no exception.  
  
Duo had his head hanging out of the car window, his eyes following every moment intently. The multi-coloured flashing lights had easily become Duo's main interest and zooming cars no longer frightened him after Dorothy had explained that they were used as modes of transport. Later she had been tempted to tell him that the cars were also capable of killing but decided against it in might she frighten the boy and cause him to slip into his own world of pessimism.  
  
"So where are you taking me again?" asked Duo for the 65th time.  
  
"Back to the labs. We received an urgent call regarding Heero and we think that it might affect you as well. This is why I'm taking you back. Don't worry, its just for overnight inspection and I will be there to look after you." She said as she turned into the car park. Then she added just for safety measures" Remember no one will hurt you. There will be security guards looking after the place."  
  
"Ok. Security guards are cool!" announced Duo with the enthusiasm of a seven year old. "Now lets go. I may be scared of Heero but I don't want him to be in pain or trouble because of me." He said and trotted off in the direction of the entrance.  
  
Quatre was still staring at the machine with great wonder. Having finally gathered the courage to test the machine without the usual safety precautions he sat down in the cubicle. Apprehensiveness showed on his face as he put on the helmet. He pressed the start button and sleeping gas slowly began to fill the chamber. He never heard the Dreamer hum into life.  
  
Duo burst into the testing labs, smiling and waving to all the large security guards happily.  
  
"Hey Dorothy. Which way do I go to get to the right room?" he yelled.  
  
"Two doors down and then turn left. Follow that corridor and its room 210." Shouted back Dorothy. "Just remember not to touch anything when you get there. I don't want you pressing any of the buttons."  
  
"Right. Gotcha!" replied Duo and he sprinted down the corridors. Finding the right room he entered. The room was covered with panels of buttons and switches. Just looking at them made the braided boy nervous.  
  
He continued to scan his gaze across the panels and noted that one panel was lit up. A slight humming also caught his attention and Duo panicked. Did he accidentally press a button? Quickly he ran back out of the room and down the corridor.  
  
"DOROTHY!!!" he screamed when he located her talking to a person in a lab coat. "I promise I didn't do anything but there are like these lights that are flashing...like the lights I saw flashing when you were driving." He took a deep breath before continuing. "Then I heard this humming noise. I...I promise I didn't touch anything. I swear!!!"  
  
Dorothy put a hand on Duo's shoulder to reassure him. "You could have accidentally pressed a switch. You don't have anything to worry about as we at Virtual Reality Inc have already foreseen this problem. You to use a manual remote switch or know the password to operate the Dreamer."  
  
"BUT IT WAS FLASHING!"  
  
Dorothy sighed. "Look if it makes you feel any better I will come over and check the machine with you."  
  
Duo nodded, and followed Dorothy back to the room repeating that he had done absolutely nothing and it wasn't his fault.  
  
Dorothy opened the door and peered inside. Sure enough, the one side of the panels had flashing lights. Upon closer inspection she noted that only somebody with knowledge of the secret password or had access to the remote operator could have turned this section of the machine on.  
  
"...uh I really didn't do this." Said Duo after a long period of silence. The quiet had caused Duo to panic.  
  
"Only Wufei, Quatre and I know the password and have access to the remote." Muttered Dorothy to herself.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
"Shhh" said the blonde and she waved Duo away. "Wufei should be with Heero and I'm with you...Quatre...I didn't see Quatre on the way in!"  
  
"Quatre? No I didn't see him." Duo said scratching his head.  
  
"No he wouldn't be using the machine now! Not without supervision. He's not stupid enough to do such a thing." Cried Dorothy and she rushed out of the room and down to the testing area." 


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7  
  
Quatre woke up to the sound of Dorothy calling for the paramedics.  
  
"Where am I?" he groaned. He held his head with both hands in an attempt to stop the thumping pain. He currently felt like he had one too many drinks and his head was spinning like crazy. Then he remembered what he had been doing prior to his passing out. He turned his head over to one side and saw a boy with brown hair. Was that the boy of his dreams?  
  
Dorothy's cry interrupted the Arab's thoughts. "Quatre! Quatre! How are you feeling? Are you alright?" she asked and wrapped a blanket around him.  
  
"He...there...he's real." Quatre pointed to the person lying in the glass cubicle not too far away from him. "Oh Allah! I can't believe that this happened."  
  
The long haired blonde could feel rage boil in her blood. She was so angry that she could almost slap Quatre but couldn't bring herself to him one of her best friends.  
  
"Oh Quatre! How could you be so stupid! Do you realize that you were actually putting your life in danger?"  
  
Quatre shook his head. "I...I just wanted to test out. No I wanted to try the Dreamer for myself. I wanted to experience what Heero went through."  
  
This time Dorothy could hold back no longer and slapped Quatre hard. Unshed tears burned her eyes.  
  
"Do you realize what has happened Heero?"  
  
"Heero? What has happened to Heero? I thought that Zechs was looking after him."  
  
Dorothy wiped away a tear. "I just spoke to Dr Po. She's received an urgent call from Wufei. She was supposed to pass the message to you but she couldn't find you in the control room." Dorothy took a deep breath. "Heero has...lost all emotion."  
  
"Lost all emotion!? But how? What went wrong in our test?"  
  
Dorothy shook her head. "I don't know. I really don't know." She turned and looked at the person in the other cubicle, who was starting to stir from his slumber.  
  
Dorothy motioned for Duo to help Quatre while she went over to the other glass booth. She cautiously opened the door and put a warm safety blanket over the naked boy who had just woken up.  
  
"Hello there." She said gently. Remembering Duo's response to meeting other people for the first time she decided to reassure him. "Don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. Nobody here is going to hurt you in any way."  
  
The boy ran a hand through his hair and looked at Dorothy through his bangs. The mind control specialist found that this boy had bright green eyes and one of them was covered by his bangs. She made a mental note that people who were created or dreamed through the Dreamer had unusual coloured eyes.  
  
Seeing that the boy was not going to panic like Duo had Dorothy decided that the best thing to do was to keep talking to the young man.  
  
"My name is Dorothy. What's yours?"  
  
The young man looked up at the specialist and blinked. "My name is Trowa." He said calmly in a smooth voice.  
  
"Have I been set free?"  
  
There were those words again. Duo had said them when he had entered the real world. Did that mean the human brain was a prison for the people in their dreams? There were so many questions to ask.  
  
Suddenly Wufei entered the room followed by Heero. Dorothy noted that Heero was walking awkwardly. She then remembered Dr Sally Po's words. Heero had apparently lost all sense of emotion. Deciding to test this theory she smiled at the chocolate haired boy.  
  
"Hey Heero. Sorry for calling you in so late."  
  
"Hn."  
  
"He doesn't respond or should I say, he does respond sometimes but shows no sense of emotion." Said Wufei. He surveyed the current surroundings and looked at Dorothy with a puzzled expression.  
  
"What happened here?"  
  
Dorothy looked to where Duo was tending the empath. "Quatre decided to give the Dreamer a go while no body was here to supervise. Trowa here is the product of his experiment." She paused and swallowed. "I just hope that whatever happened to Heero won't happen to Quatre."  
  
The Chinese man nodded in agreement.  
  
"Wufei, we need to analyze the data collected from Duo's scans. We need to find out what happened exactly to Heero and why he is acting like he is."  
  
Wufei nodded again. "Yes, you're right. Take Heero and give him an EEG. I want to compare his results to Duo's. After that, if you have time I want you to give Quatre and Trowa one. I'm going to go over the information that we already have with Duo and also monitor his behavior at the same time."  
  
Dorothy immediately sprung into action, taking with her the people that she needed with her into the EEG room and leaving Duo and Wufei behind.  
  
Wufei looked at Duo. "What a mess!"  
  
"No it's not messy in here. In fact it's rather neat."  
  
The Chinese man cocked an eyebrow in the braided boy's direction. "Did you just crack a joke? Do you know what the situation currently is? Something has happened and you are directly involved in it."  
  
"I know that. I'm not stupid you know."  
  
Wufei let out an exasperated sigh. "Duo, this is no joking matter. I have to find out what happened to Heero."  
  
"I can answer that for you." Duo said happily. "In fact you already know the answer yourself. Heero has lost his emotions."  
  
"Duo. A person can't simply lose their emotions all of a sudden."  
  
"They can't?" asked Duo, puzzled at the statement.  
  
"No, unless they've gone through some trauma or major incident."  
  
"Major incident." Repeated Duo. "Major incident, major incident, major incident...I got it!"  
  
Wufei looked at Duo as if he were crazy. "How would you know what happened? You don't even know how the machine functions."  
  
"No no no! You have to hear me out. I think I know how it works. Quatre just went into the machine and that person came out...so that means when Heero went into the machine I came out right?"  
  
Wufei nodded. He noted that Duo spoke with an air of intelligence.  
  
"And you also said that Heero had lost his emotions. That must mean that I am Heero's emotions...gosh that sounds weird. But I think that's the only logical explanation."  
  
"But the objective of Operation Dreamer was to create a person from the user's dreams." Countered Wufei. "In fact it was specifically designed and programmed for that purpose. There is no code for emotions in the program whatsoever unless..."  
  
"Somebody added the code for that in?" offered Duo.  
  
Wufei shook his head. "No, Heero would never do anything like that unless there he had a good reason to."  
  
"Maybe he did."  
  
The Chinese man thought back to the past few days events. Did Heero actually add in a emotions function without the rest of the team knowing?  
  
"Stupid man!" he muttered. "He should have at least told one person in the team to avoid having this accident, one that involves his own life too."  
  
Duo turned his head to face the door where Dorothy had led the others out of the room. "Well, the only thing we can do now is wait and hope for the best." 


	8. Chapter 8, The End

Chapter 8  
  
Hours past and during this time Wufei and Duo went through some of the data that the Dreamer had produced in the past. Duo was full of questions, constantly asking Wufei why and how does this work. The Chinese man was about to explode from frustration when Dorothy entered the room.  
  
"Thank goodness you're back!" cried Wufei in relief. "How did the EEG go? Do the results show anything that we can use to solve our current problem?"  
  
"Yes and no." answered Dorothy. "Yes as in I've found that there are missing lines in Quatre's EEG and also in Trowa's results. When I combine the two EEG's together they form a complete set of results for a normal human being." She took a deep breath before continuing. "No as in I have no idea how the two separated and how we can fix this problem."  
  
A smile instantly lit up on Wufei's face. "I know what we have to do." He said. "Duo and I had a little discussion while you were gone and we've found that Duo could be Heero's emotions...in human form."  
  
Dorothy caught on quickly. "And in order to fix this problem all we need to do is reverse the Dreamer's operations. That's brilliant!"  
  
"Then what are we waiting for?" asked Wufei and he ushered the group into the testing room. Once there he seated Quatre in the glass cubicle where Trowa had come from and Trowa in the seat where Quatre had originally sat. Both had entered their cubicles without any fuss.  
  
"I hope that this works." He said to Dorothy and keyed in the password.  
  
The machine beeped and a slight humming told everyone in the room that the machine was working. Soon sleeping gas filled both chambers. Dorothy kept a close eye on the monitors.  
  
"Everything is working perfectly."  
  
"Good." Answered Wufei. "Continue to monitor those." He said as he kept an eye on the computer screens on his side of the room.  
  
Duo pressed his face against the viewing glass. His eyes widened as Trowa began to fade away before his very eyes. "No way! Its really happening. You gotta have a look at this."  
  
Wufei turned his head. Duo was right. Trowa was disappearing and Quatre was beginning to stir from his slumber.  
  
"I'm going down to check on Quatre." said Wufei as he put on a gas mask. "Keep an eye out for his pulse."  
  
"You go it. Now go and check on Quatre." Dorothy waved her hands in a shooing motion and Wufei ran out the door and down the stairs.  
  
The Chinese man reached Quatre's cubicle in next to no time. He manually opened the door and reached in.  
  
"Quatre, Quatre. Its Wufei, your boss at Virtual Reality Inc. If you can open your eyes or make a noise."  
  
"Hnnn, oh my head." Groaned Quatre. "I feel like its been run over by a steam roller." He opened his eyes and saw Wufei through blurry eyes. "Wufei...what happened?"  
  
"Good your conscious." Said Wufei and he waved over a medical team. "Take him to the treatment room. I want you to give him a full mental inspection." He moved out of the way to let the medical team.  
  
Inside the testing facilities room Duo watched Quatre being taken away and he was scared. He knew that he was going have to go through the same thing that Trowa had gone through. He was going to disappear, to go back to Heero, to his dark homeland. That was something that he did not want to do.  
  
"I don't want to go back." He said quietly.  
  
Dorothy looked up and saw the expression on Duo's face. 'He's scared.' She thought. 'He's completely torn between staying and going back.'  
  
The creak of a door opening interrupted the mind control specialist's thoughts.  
  
"He's fine." Said Wufei with a smile on his face. "We'll continue with the reversal process once Quatre is back with us again. I want to make sure that we have the entire team here with us when we do this as Heero has been separated from his emotions for a very long time. Quatre will come in handy when we need to know how he is feeling."  
  
Dorothy showed her understanding by nodding.  
  
A few hours later Quatre entered the room looking like he did before. He bore no blank look that Heero still wore on his face and responded as he did prior to his little incident with the Dreamer.  
  
"Quatre! You're back!" exclaimed Dorothy as she ran up to the blonde and gave him a hug.  
  
"Yes, welcome back to the team." Said Wufei. "Welcome back."  
  
Wufei and Dorothy spent the next hour explaining to Quatre their discovery about the Dreamer.  
  
"So you're saying that we need to put Duo back into Heero...kinda like what you did to Trowa."  
  
"Yes that's right." Confirmed Dorothy.  
  
"But I'm sensing that Duo doesn't want to go back. He's scared...unsure but knows for certain that he needs to go back in order to save Heero."  
  
Wufei gave the empathy a questioning look. "Are you certain about that? How could Duo feel so much? I mean a few days ago he seemed like he didn't know anything about our world."  
  
"Wufei. Duo is smart. He's part of Heero and we know how high his IQ is." Said Dorothy. "I suppose that it should come as no surprise that Duo would be a fast learner."  
  
Wufei nodded. "True...true...now should we get moving now we know how Duo is feeling?"  
  
"Yes." Said Dorothy. "Lets get this show on the road."

Owari

Continue to Epilogue


	9. Epilogue

Chapter 9  
  
"Duo, its time for you to go back to where you came from." Said Wufei to the boy who had gone silent for the past few minutes. "Follow me."  
  
Duo looked at Wufei with sorrow in his eyes. He didn't want to leave...but he didn't want to see Heero looking like a emotionless doll either.  
  
"Is there another way?"  
  
"No. I'm sorry Duo. This is the only way."  
  
Quatre wiped his eyes. He had grown quite attached to the boy since he had been here.  
  
"Duo." He began. "I'd just like to say that its been nice to meet you and that I've had a great time with you while you've been here. I promise that I won't forget you."  
  
Duo nodded and gave him a sad smile. "Thank you Quatre. Hopefully those memories will still be with me when I return...home and brighten up my life there." He shook Quatre's arm firmly and gave a yelp of surprise when Quatre gave him a hug.  
  
Duo turned to Dorothy. "Thank you Dorothy for trying to help Heero. I guess in a way you are helping me because I am part of Heero. Perhaps you will see a bit of me when you are around him."  
  
Dorothy ran over and also gave Duo a hug. "Duo I will never forget you."  
  
"Duo its time." Said Wufei and Dorothy let go. Duo followed Wufei obediently down the stairs to the cubicle where Heero had sat when the testing was originally started. He watched as Heero was led to the other cubicle.  
  
He put on the helmet provided and waited.  
  
"Please, don't forget me." He mouthed as the sleeping gas was released into the chamber. The last thing that he saw before he was unconscious were the sad faces of his new friends.  
  
Heero woke up clutching his head. The throbbing pain was terrible.  
  
"Oh...hnnn." He groaned. "Head hurts...bad."  
  
"Heero! Its Wufei." He heard. "I'm going to get the medic's to get you checked out. You've been in the Dreamer." Heero sensed himself being lifted and laid gently into a stretcher and soon felt a prick of a needle. Within minutes he was in a deep sleep.  
  
The medical department ran Heero through several machines and scans while he was unconscious. The MRI and CAT scan showed that no damage was done to his brain during the process. Wufei was very much relieved by this news. He and the team went and visited the Japanese man in hospital two weeks later.  
  
"Yuy. How are you feeling?"  
  
"Chang. You have to get me out of hospital. I hate them...I feel so restricted."  
  
Beside Quatre Dorothy whispered. I think I can see the Duo in him. Quatre smiled and thought back to the picture in his wallet.  
  
"Yes, I think I can see the Duo in him too."

End of Epilogue


End file.
